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Well, la di da. So much has happened in the last few days. I have gotten lazy in photo taking. I have a handful of finished projects to show off. Maybe on the weekend? I found out last week (I think!) that I wasn't selected for the professional development opportunity at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In fact, most of my staff was denied. :( Talk about a bummer. But this opened up the door to the possibility of working for this summer preschool program where they help children transition to Kindergarten. The major problem is that the first day of training is my last day of school. The person in charge was willing to move mountains so that I could participate this year but I asked that she not do that. In the end, I chose not to do the program because I wouldn't be able to end the school year in the way I would want to (meaning not rushed). Oh well. It would've been good money too. It just wasn't meant to be.

Ohhh, and there is possibly another move in our future. Our latest neighbors (across the way) had a domestic disturbance the other night which the hubs bore witness to so he called the cops. They came, broke the apt. door down BUT they left that sob in his apt. I guess there wasn't enough evidence? Yet a few hours later (this transpired at about 4:30 in the morning on Monday!), the girl knocked on our door and showed the hubs the big bruise on her frickin' head!! Sigh. The perp has been given an eviction notice and last night he was talking about having our tires slashed and car windows broken because he figures it was us that called the cops on him. Just GREAT. :P  This lowlife has also threatened our landlord and his family.  The cops can't really do anything. They patrolled heavily last night. The
lowlife's sister said he isn't a threat though (thank goodness) but still. The hubs wants OUT.

On the knitting front, I have completed another shawl (that makes 3). Though the pictures I have do not do any of them justice. Here's one of two of them:

At school, we have been learning about caterpillars (have I told you that yet?). On Friday, most of them formed their chrysalises! We got to see some of them spin too. It was pretty cool.

They have all officially chrysalized so now we just have to wait for them to pop out as butterflies! The stuff below them is a mixture of their food and poop (I'm guessing!)

On Friday, we celebrated my birthday at school. I wore this crown (made by my most amazing assistant ever!)

I received a ton of cards from my students,

 balloons,

and flowers.

  They "surprised" me with a party too.  We had a pinata which was fitting since my actual birthday is Cinco de Mayo!  They really surprised me with a dance. It was so special.

 I got a few presents from them too some of which have yet to be photographed. Here's one of them, an air freshener.  I also received a dress, a traditional Mexican outfit handsewn by my assistant!, hand soap, a candle, a bracelet, and some gift cards.  The hubs got me an amazing gift too which was yet to be photographed. My actual birthday was spent at my friend's house who was throwing a party to commemorate her daughter's first communion. Fun times.  

Tiger Mother

I picked up Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother at the library earlier this week.  I missed all the controversy over it.  In fact, my sister made a comment to me about tiger mothers not too long ago and I had to ask what in the world that meant! Recently in Newsweek, they did an issue on Tiger Mothers so that is when I became more familiar with the issue.  I only picked it up because being Asian, I am most able to either agree or disagree with the author because my experience growing up was similar in many ways.  I also thought it would be a fun read for me.  I've only read 50 pages and I have to say that if I had more time in the day (or if I could miss a day of school), I would already be finished with it. It is easy and light. Some parts are actually funny. I have not quite arrived at the part where the controversy stems from.
On the back cover, the author provides a list of things that her daughters were never allowed to do. Out of the list of ten items, there were maybe 4 things that I was not allowed to do growing up. Some of the things were not applicable to me because I didn't ever want to be in a school play nor would I have complained about it but there were things that I wanted to be in i.e. a dance performance that I ultimately was not allowed to do (even though I had already signed up to do it). I also wasn't allowed to stay after school not to mention attend Science Camp but I digress.
I am off to get some work done. I have had meetings for the past three days at school (with two back to back on Monday even!) and I still have to type up my weekly letter to my families.

Z is for Ziploc

Ziploc bags are a necessity in Kindergarten if not all elementary school classes. We use them for everything. Currently, I have a few dead moths in a snack size ziploc to take to school for my students to examine! We are learning about caterpillars, butterflies, and moths.  Earlier today, I had my students sort through some magnetic lowercase letters and when they finished, they put them in ziploc bags!  For Mother's Day, our students are making earrings. They are beading them onto straight head pins and I am placing them on earring wires.  After they've put the earrings on some construction paper, they fold it up and put them in a teeny ziploc bag!  I will try to get some pics of some of their earrings just so you can see. After today, I'll be able to go back to blogging about my life but I'm going to miss the randomness of A to Z blogging.

Y is for Yoga

This school year, my students and I have been doing certain yoga poses. I got this book last school year and decided to try it out this year.  The kids love it.  We have yet to get through the whole book. In fact we are only in the G's!  I better get a move on or we won't get through all of them.  After we learned a whole bunch, I printed out the names of all the different poses and stuck them on popsicle sticks so when we're going to transition that's what we do.  Or if they have the wiggles we'll do some yoga poses.

X is for X

As a teacher of young children who are learning how to read and becoming familiar with spelling patterns and what not, it dawned on me that for X, I could discuss the different sounds that X possesses.  Were you aware that X actually has two three sounds? At the beginning of words,  X makes the /z/ sound like in Xenon and Xenia.   The other two sounds that X makes is /ks/ as in wax, tax, mix, fox, sexton, or crux and /gz/ as in exit or auxiliary.  The /ks/ sound is more common and more widely used.  I didn't even realize that X could say /gz/ until I started working as a tutor.  The owner of the center I worked at had been working on a spelling rule book for most of her adult life and one of the rules had to do with the various sounds X could make! If you take a look at all the words I have used that contain x, you just might be able to figure out when X makes certain sounds. Although I did give away when it makes the /z/ sound. Good luck figuring out the tricks. :)



P.S. Pardon the lateness of this post. Somehow I got pink eye again on Friday. It has mostly cleared up as of today (I think).

W is for Waiting

You would think that since I'm a knitter and I work with children, I should be good at waiting, right? HA. Actually it depends on the situation.  For example, if the hubs is going in for a hospital procedure, then I come well-prepared with a bag of stuff (magazines, knitting, snacks, water, and a book).  If the wait is an unexpected one and I am ill-prepared, it can go either way.  I am not one who will play with my phone.  I don't even access the internet on my phone and this is by choice!  What makes the waiting worse is typically annoying people waiting around me, bad perfume/cologne (I'm allergic), smoking (if it's open air), and hunger.  I need to start carrying knitting in my bag again like I used to. That way I always have something to do if I have to sit around and wait.

V is for Vitamins

I am a mostly regular vitamin popper.  I am only mostly regular because I don't remember to always take them (because they must be taken with food).  I take a calcium-magnesium with vitamin d,

a multi,

and an omega 3 and fish oil supplement.

My body feels a difference when I haven't taken any of them (because usually I just stop altogether!).  I used to take my multi and the cal-mag after lunch (right before our read aloud) and the children would marvel at me taking my vitamins in one big gulp.  I know it is advised that you don't take all your vitamins at once (at least that's what they said on Oprah!) but I don't often have breakfast. Plus what I eat for breakfast might not be considered a meal (i.e. banana).  The hubs and I tend to eat dinner later than we should (usually after 7, sometimes 9!) and I don't like taking vitamins that late (after 9) because then I have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom! Do you take vitamins? Which ones?